财务弹性是微观企业财务政策选择的体现和核心问题,企业财务弹性政策如何影响企业绿色技术创新,是现阶段企业政策制定者和学界共同关注的重要问题。现有研究忽略了财务因素即企业财务资源获取与配置等对企业绿色技术创新的影响。本文将财务弹性理论、资源依赖理论与企业创新理论相融合,通过整理并构造独特的企业绿色技术创新数据库,从微观层面反映企业财务弹性政策对企业绿色技术创新的影响机制。本文选取沪深两市2012—2021年A股制造业上市公司数据为样本,考察财务弹性政策对企业绿色技术创新的影响。研究发现,企业财务弹性与企业绿色技术创新显著正相关,财务资源弹性和财务协调弹性正向影响企业绿色技术创新,相较于现金弹性和负债融资弹性,综合财务弹性可以更显著地提升企业绿色技术创新水平。进一步发现,财务弹性与融资约束之间存在交互作用,随着企业财务弹性水平的提高,将会弱化融资约束对企业绿色技术创新的负面影响。财务弹性可以通过缓解融资约束对企业绿色技术创新形成部分中介效应。财务弹性具有“自适应效应”,当环境不确定性增加时,企业能够利用储备的财务弹性来维持企业绿色技术创新活动。企业财务弹性对企业竞争力获取有促进作用,能够保证企业合理配置创新资源,确保企业绿色技术创新价值链的完整和持续,使得企业绿色技术创新对企业竞争力创造发挥更大的促进作用。本文探索了企业绿色技术创新的影响因素,对企业增强财务弹性意识、借助财务弹性政策提高绿色技术创新、促进高质量发展具有重要启示。

In recent years, green innovation and green transformation and development have increasingly attracted widespread attention at the practice level at home and abroad. The research on the influencing factors of enterprise green technology innovation mostly analyzes the impact on green technology innovation from the macro-industry level, mainly from the non-financial factors such as strategy, technology, market and government intervention, financial subsidies, and industrial clusters (Tao Feng et al., 2021; Shao Shuai et al., 2022). However, the impact of corporate financial system factors such as the acquisition and effective allocation of financial resources on green technology innovation is ignored. Green technology innovation is an important investment behavior of enterprises, which is different from traditional technology innovation and has unique risk and benefit characteristics. The green technology innovation activities of enterprises are inseparable from the support of continuous and large R&D funds (Brown and Petersen, 2011). How to flexibly allocate corporate financial resources to improve the level of corporate green technology innovation has become the focus of attention at the theoretical and practical levels. Financial flexibility is the embodiment and core issue of micro-enterprise financial policy choice. As an important institutional factor supporting enterprise innovation, it reflects the degree of strategic adjustment and flexibility of the company's “change-to-change” strategy.

In the context of realizing the “dual goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” and “two-wheeled driving of S&T innovation and institutional innovation”, according to the data obtained at the micro-enterprise level, this paper intends to found out whether different corporate financial flexibility policies will help enterprises to carry out green technology innovation and effectively solve the dilemma of their green technology innovation, and the impact mechanism of financial flexibility policies on corporate green technology innovation.

This paper selected the data of A-share listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2012 to 2021 as a sample to investigate the effect of financial flexibility policy on corporate green technology innovation. The study found that corporate financial flexibility is significantly positively correlated to corporate green technology innovation, and financial resource flexibility and financial coordination flexibility have a positive impact on corporate green technology innovation. Compared with cash flexibility and debt financing flexibility, comprehensive financial flexibility can significantly improve companies. It was further found that there is an interaction between financial flexibility and financing constraints. With the improvement of corporate financial flexibility, the negative impact of financing constraints on corporate green technology innovation will be weakened. Financial flexibility can form a partial intermediary effect on corporate green technology innovation by easing financing constraints. Financial flexibility has a “self-adaption effect”. Corporate financial flexibility can promote the acquisition of corporate competitiveness and can ensure that enterprises rationally allocate innovation resources, ensure the integrity and continuity of the value chain of corporate green technology innovation, and make corporate green technological innovation play a greater role in promoting the creation of enterprise competitiveness.

The possible marginal contributions were presented in the following aspects: Firstly, this study has expanded and enriched the literature on financial flexibility policies and corporate green technology innovation, by collecting a unique corporate green technology innovation database, and verified the transformation of corporate green development and green technology progress from the micro level influencing factors. Secondly, the study is helpful for relevant researchers to understand the impact mechanism of corporate financial flexibility policy on corporate green technology innovation at the micro level. This paper turned to a more micro-level enterprise level to verify the impact mechanism of corporate financial flexibility policies to induce green technology innovation. Finally, this paper also explored the impact mechanism of the financial flexibility policy of manufacturing enterprises on enterprise green technology innovation, and the efforts will provide experiences and reference in promoting the overall green transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. On the one hand, it will provide experience and reference for manufacturing enterprises to achieve “gorgeous transformation” in green technology innovation, and on the other hand, it will also provide suitable suggestions for capital allocation and transformation and upgrading of Chinese enterprises under the guidance of the strategic policy of “innovation-driven, green development”.